And if you ever want to see that smile, all you have to do is mention his favorite character.

"Mickey Mouse is part of our house, all the time," said Thomas' mother Jill Brunstad.

The eight-year-old has cerebral palsy and epilepsy which prevents him from speaking.

"When he's watching Mickey Mouse at the end they say by 'bye' so that was his first word was actually saying 'bye'," said Jill. "For a non-verbal kid to kind of connect to a character, Mickey Mouse has been his love since he was teeny tiny."

Now, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Thomas gets to meet Mickey in person.

Thomas and his twin brother Daniel found out they were going to Disney World in class at Northland Pines Elementary School on Tuesday.

"This is the second one we've done at school and it is absolutely wonderful fun and the noise level of course makes it all happier," said Make-A-Wish Wisconsin wish granter Michele Bergstrom.

Thomas' teacher can't think of a more deserving student.

"He's very positive. He is hysterical. He makes us laugh and smile all the time," said Special Education Teacher Heather Schmudlach. "Whenever you get to see one of your students get their dream come true and you know the struggles that they've gone through in order to get this, it's absolutely exciting."

Thomas not only gets to meet his favorite character, but he gets to go on his first true vacation.

"We've never gone on a vacation that doesn't involve him having a procedure done, so in eight years this is the first time we're doing something with nothing medical which is amazing," said Jill.

ANTIGO - A sandbag can serve as a cheap, easy tool to stop floodwater from reaching homes, businesses, and other buildings. In Antigo, city workers have seen their fair share of sandbags lately. The city made a thousand of them. It's something workers do every year, but hope to never use them.

"Every melting season," said Antigo Public Works Project Manager Charlie Brinkmeier. "We never know, the weather changes day to day."

Since the flooding that took place in 2004, the city of Antigo has been doing its best to stay prepared.

"Everybody in this community has institutional memory from the 2004 event," said Antigo Administrative Services Director Mark Desotell. "It was quite an impact on the city. It impacted a lot of businesses."

RHINELANDER - The first day of spring on Tuesday greeted us with snow and cold, but a handful of people across Rhinelander did their best to deliver some warm feelings.

Hometown Chiropractic employees stood outside the Rhinelander District Library starting at 12:30 p.m. with motivational signs. This is the third year the chiropractic office decided to do "Sunshine on the Street."

MERRILL - Dozens of people in Merrill considered who is representing them in city government. A group is pushing to recall five of the city's eight representatives and held a rally Tuesday night to make their case to their fellow taxpayers.

"It's now or never," said LaDonna Fermanich, one of the rally organizers.

The Recall Rally was held at Les and Jim's Lincoln Lanes less than a mile away from Merrill City Hall, where a common council meeting was taking place at the same time.

"This is nothing personal for the alderman. We believe you're all of good character," said Steve Sabatke, addressing the council. Sabatke plans to run for Merrill's 8th district seat.

RHINELANDER - By landing in New Zealand last week, Rhinelander's Darlene Machtan and her husband checked off another continent in their world travels. They landed and were confronted by huge national news.

"It's all people are talking about," Machtan said in a FaceTime interview.

Last Friday in Christchurch, New Zealand, a white supremacist started shooting at two mosques in a terrorist attack, killing 50 people.

Most years, the entire country has fewer than ten homicides with guns.

RHINELANDER - Oneida County Supervisor Bob Mott felt sadness as he toured the Doctors Foster and Smith property in Rhinelander on Feb. 22. Mott knew he couldn't save the nearly 300 jobs that are disappearing after Petco announced in January it was closing most of the facility.

However, Mott is now pushing the county to look at a new option for the buildings and land that could generate money and create jobs.

At Tuesday's county board meeting, Mott submitted a resolution that would form a committee to look at Oneida County buying the property from Petco.

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